Bill Moyers Journal . Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Drew Altman

The war of words over the process of health care reform has gotten so loud that the White House itself has created a "Reality Check" Web site and is sending out mass emails debunking myths and reiterating its rationale for reform. The Project for Excellence in Journalism notes that coverage has tended toward a lot of heat and little light (or in-depth policy analysis) due to the medium: "From August 3-9 health care accounted for only 5% of the newshole in newspapers, online and network news. But it dominated cable news (37%) and radio (33%), the two sectors that include the debate-oriented programming that hammers away on polarizing issues."

The debate is bound to get louder. THE WASHINGTON POST reported on August 5, 2009, that all sides in the debate may spend a record-breaking $52 million making their case on the airwaves. How does an educated news consumer separate the hype from the facts? Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and Drew Altman of the Kaiser Family Foundation talked to Bill Moyers about decoding the debate rhetoric. Two good starting points are Factcheck.org, the award-winning service of the Annenberg School and The Kaiser Health News Service's media watch. You'll find many additional sources and round-ups on health care debate myths from major media outlets listed below.